Joint Exclusion Zone
| The Joint Exclusion Zone | |
|---|---|
 One of many vehicle graveyards established in the JEZ | |
| Ecology | |
| Realm | Palearctic |
| Biome | Multiple |
| Borders | Republic of Kalaron |
| Animals | 300-800~ |
| Bird species | 132 |
| Mammal species | 300 |
| Geography | |
| Area | 1,500,000 km2 (580,000 sq mi) |
| Conservation | |
| Conservation status | Formally judged to be expanding |
On October 20th, 1994, the landscapes of several landmasses were permanently changed. For one matter, stretches of the different areas became magnetically, radiologically and climatologically destabilized. The true explanation behind these changes have never been objectively proven, though several theories have been put forward by leading scientists across the world. The impact, however, was felt globally. For instance, arable lands and several dozen cities were quickly evacuated for fear of the sudden shift, and several more were lost completely from anomalous conditions. Some nations even experienced irrecoverable strife, fracturing or collapsing entirely. A famine followed, caused by the rampant "Anomalous Winters" that struck the Exclusion Zones.
All told, the economic and social damage of the event could well be said to be impossible to truly calculate, with recovery for the majority of effected nations taking upwards of 28 years. By this point, adaptations have been put in place by several nations to stabilize their otherwise jeopardized trade routes. In some cases, overland trade has become completely impossible, requiring the establishment of underground settlements (with an associated rail-line connection) while in others only high-altitude flight or nape-of-the-earth transit were possible. Furthermore, a flourishing trade has come into being from the uniquely rare materials that can often be recovered from the damaged cities. This has, in turn, prompted the existence of organizations, free agents, mercenaries, freedom fighters, and professional military units dedicated to their collection, often with all of the aforementioned actors having ties to a specific and always "off the record" sponsor nation.
Navigators on these expeditions are often forced to compromise between different types of risks, whether it be from the frequent anomalies, the oppressive radioactivity stemming from the Ice-Sprouts, or the environmental stresses brought about during their spread. In addition to these issues, diplomacy must often be undertaken with those communities that have managed to retain some existence in the zone -many of whom have evolved beyond considering the will of their native nation-state. Survival is a difficult matter in general, and those who've endured the Joint Exclusion Zone remain a consistent thorn in the side of more professional forces despite their lack of advanced arms or vehicles. Even those who successfully navigate through those obstacles must deal with the mutated and twisted creatures and vegetation that inhabit and flourish inside of the Zones.